In the field of medical diagnostics including oncology, the detection, identification, quantitation and characterization of cells of interest, such as cancer cells, through testing of biological specimens is an important aspect of diagnosis. Typically, a biological specimen such as bone marrow, lymph nodes, peripheral blood, cerebrospinal fluid, urine, effusions, fine needle aspirates, peripheral blood scrapings or other materials are prepared by staining the specimen to identify cells of interest. One method of cell specimen preparation is to react a specimen with a specific probe which can be a monoclonal antibody, a polyclonal antiserum, or a nucleic acid which is reactive with a component of the cells of interest, such as tumor cells. The reaction may be detected using an enzymatic reaction, such as alkaline phosphatase or glucose oxidase or peroxidase to convert a soluble colorless substrate to a colored insoluble precipitate, or by directly conjugating a dye to the probe.
Examination of biological specimens in the past has been performed manually by either a lab technician or a pathologist. In the manual method, a slide prepared with a biological specimen is viewed at a low magnification under a microscope to visually locate candidate cells of interest. Those areas of the slide where cells of interest are located are then viewed at a higher magnification to confirm those objects as cells of interest, such as tumor or cancer cells. The manual method is time consuming and prone to error including missing areas of the slide.
Automated cell analysis systems have been developed to improve the speed and accuracy of the testing process. One known interactive system includes a single high power microscope objective for scanning a rack of slides, portions of which have been previously identified for assay by an operator. In that system, the operator first scans each slide at a low magnification similar to the manual method and notes the points of interest on the slide for later analysis. The operator then stores the address of the noted location and the associated function in a data file. Once the points of interest have been located and stored by the operator, the slide is then positioned in an automated analysis apparatus which acquires images of the slide at the marked points and performs an image analysis.